EUGENIA KURAN

Warsaw, 2 March 1946. Examining Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the judge took an oath therefrom, following which the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Eugenia Kuran, née Kaliszewicz
Parents’ names Józef and Katarzyna, née Mejak
Date of birth 11 March 1902 in Warsaw
Occupation shop assistant
Education three classes of secondary school
Place of residence Płocka Street 37, flat 9
Religion Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

On 13 January 1944, between 13.00 and 14.00, I was on a tramcar on the number 9 route, heading towards Płocka Street in Warsaw where I lived. At Górczewska Street near the Dresden lace factory the tramcar was stopped by gendarmes, who ordered the passengers to step onto the pavement and stand still. A moment later, three canopied trucks drove up and parked between Wolski Hospital and Działdowska Street. Germans in uniforms sprang from the first vehicle and started to bring out groups of five men each from the second truck; they were dressed only in shorts, barefooted, with bare and shaved heads. All of the men were very pale, they were led along, stumbling, in silence. I heard the first salvo and saw how five people were shot dead in the field opposite Wolski Hospital, whereupon I fainted.

Later on I was told that 20 men had been executed by firing squad. Their bodies were removed immediately after the execution by Semitic-looking labourers, who loaded them onto the vehicle. Only blood, bone fragments, and bits of brain were left in the square. Candles and flowers appeared shortly after.

The report was read out.